U.S. Open

ARDMORE, Pa. 
Billy Horschel is going to wear octopus pants on Sunday at the U.S. Open. There’s more than one, so guess it would be octopi pants.

Seriously. Ralph Lauren makes dark sea blue pants with white octopi, and at some point Luke Donald is supposed to don them, too, at Merion Golf Club. You’re going to hope these guys get good TV time, just to see these things.

There are so many different directions we could go with this. Shouldn’t a golfer be nervous about the number 8? Isn’t Horschel afraid of picking up the nickname Billy the Squid? Does he realize if he wins the national championship that seafood on his pants will live on in infamy?

If ever there was a golfer who we figure might be superstitious about such things, it’d be Horschel, a twitchy, nervous 26-year-old who has been a breakout player on the PGA Tour this season, including scoring a win in New Orleans.

On Friday in the second round of the U.S. Open — in the midst of playing 29 holes for the day — Horschel accomplished something that nobody has done in at least 20 years in this major. He hit all 18 greens in regulation to shoot 3-under-par 67 and share the clubhouse lead at 1-under with Phil Mickelson. The San Diegan made his only birdie on the 18th hole in fading light to shoot 72.

It was a precarious advantage for the pair, given that 68 players had to return today to complete their weather-delayed second rounds, and there were a handful who had a chance to match or surpass them, including two amateurs — 19-year-old Torrey Pines High alum Michael Kim (two shots off the lead with six to play) and 21-year-old Taiwanese Cheng-Tsung Pan (one back with nine to go).

The leaderboard doesn’t get much better, with Luke Donald, Steve Stricker, Justin Rose and Ian Poulter — all desperately seeking their first major win — heading for the third round close to the top. Even Tiger Woods, hungry in his own right, is not out of the mix at 3-over, despite a sore left elbow and marginal putting.

It should make for a fun weekend. Heck, an octopi pants weekend.

Horschel has had a lot of work, mostly between the ears, to do to arrive at this position.

This is a guy who in recent years had to stop reading the golf magazines because they were upsetting him too much. He was watching other players from his generation tear it up on the PGA Tour, and he felt like a failure.

The expectations were high, considering Horschel was the medalist in the 2006 U.S. Amateur, thanks to a stunning 60 at Hazeltine National. But injuries and self-doubt derailed him. He missed 10 of 13 cuts at one point in 2011 and had to earn his tour card for this year through Qualifying School.